How To Cover A Fire

Posted July 06, 2020

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Fires are, alas, the bread and butter of local TV news.

They are exciting.

And as stories go, they are generally pretty pointless.

I mean, unless you are the poor bastard whose house has burned down, it is a story that has pretty much zero impact on 99.99% of the viewership.

But at local TV news, we love these stories, because like driving past a terrible automobile accident, you can't help but slow down and look. You think "thank God that wasn't me," and then move on.

At Spectrum News 1, they are doing a very different kind of local TV news - one that is entirely driven by characters and THEIR stories.

This is the kind of stuff that really engages an audience - as opposed to the burning building, which, like any house fire, is soon extinguished. 

Take a look at this story, shot on an iPhone, by the way, by Spectrum News 1 MMJ Catalina Vilegas (and like any MMJ, she also edited it as well).

This is the kind of fire story that sticks with you - not for the fire, but for the firemen.

Very different, and to a community, far more important.